We have some breaking news into CNN as the Pentagon has announced tonight that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has revoked a plea deal for the accused mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and that for two alleged accomplices. This agreement, which involved the three men pleading guilty to all charges, including the murder of nearly 3,000 people, would have taken the death penalty off the table. Joining me tonight is CNN's Pentagon Correspondent, Oren Lieberman. Oren, obviously, when this deal was announced by prosecutors, it sparked a lot of backlash from the families, from lawmakers. Tell us what's behind this amazing abrupt decision from Secretary Austin tonight.

Abrupt is a bit of an understatement. We only found out about the plea agreement two days ago and it would have brought to an end what was a very long and complicated process to try to bring Khalid Sheik Mohamed and two of his alleged co-conspirators to justice. But it did involve them pleading guilty to the charges they faced in exchange for a life sentence. As you pointed, it took the death penalty off the table. Then in an announcement that was quietly posted on the Pentagon's website about an hour ago, without any public announcement, just simply posted there, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he was not only relieving the authority of the overseer of these cases, but also withdrawing the plea agreements. You saw the announcement right there. It was only three sentences in which Austin wrote that it is now his authority and his authority alone to enter into a plea agreement like this and that he was withdrawing the agreements reached. The question, of course, what happens now? This had been delayed for so long, and it was seen as a difficult compromise to get to this point. The cases were marred by the fact that there had been torture in the past of Khalid Sheik Mohamed at CIA Blacksites and two of his co-conspirators, and that made it very difficult to pursue these cases after they had been delayed for so long, more than a decade of delays over legal complications and political problems just to get to this point, and now the case is perhaps in a bit of limbo once again.

Yeah, well, Oren, given that, and I know Secretary Austin was traveling this week and is now back, the White House said yesterday they were not aware of this plea deal until it was struck. Do we know if Secretary Austin was aware of this?

The plea deal itself at this point, that much is unclear. But what we've reported and what others have reported for more than two and a half years is that plea deal discussions were in the works. So this shouldn't have been a surprise to the Pentagon or to anybody else that there was a process in that was ongoing to try to get to a plea deal. Had Austin or the White House wanted to stop this process and say, Look, a plea deal is off the table, they could have done that at any point over the course of the past two and a half years. And that's part of why this is such a surprise that Austin simply and quietly posts a memo in which he relieves the woman who is in charge of the military court at Guantanamo Bay and revokes the plea agreements that had gotten to this point. You have to believe that part of that was the ferocity of the bipartisan backlash and the ferocity of the backlash from the victim's families when they were notified of this and then when it was announced publicly.

Yeah, Oren Lieberman, thank you for that report, Live from the We're going to have a discussion tonight. Here to discuss the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Democratic congressman, Gregory Meeks, also a New Yorker. What's your reaction to hearing that Secretary Austin has revoked this plea deal?

Well, for me, I just think that he apparently didn't know by relieving the person that struck the deal. It was not cleared by him. I think that because of some of the reactions, et cetera, he's decided to utilize his authority and step in and revoke it. It's something that I was surprised about. With the State Department, with reference to the Foreign Affairs Committee, not with the armed services where they have jurisdiction over DOD. But it was shocking to me also.

When the House Arm Services Committee was going to launch an investigation into this plea deal, they were asking for documents. Do you support this move tonight to revoke this deal?

Well, look, I think that Secretary Austin has to review to make that decision. For me, one of the things that I'm just fundamentally opposed to is the death penalty. I'm not a death penalty guy. I think death is too easy for people that have committed the evil that they've committed. They should be suffering for the rest of their life. They should be able to stand and know that they will never see the light of daylight. They should not have any luxury and suffer. That's why too often for me, individuals that commit these horrendous acts, they kill themselves because that's the easy way out. I don't know the specifics in regards to this case, but that's my personal feeling for individuals and the death penalty, generally. I think it's too easy. That's why people commit horrific acts and then end up killing themselves before someone else do so that they don't have to suffer for the rest of their lives.

So what's next for these families? Because we heard from them who said they didn't feel like they could get closure from the plea deal because it did take the death penalty trial off the table. Now it seems to be back on the table with him revoking it.

You always feel for the families. I'm in New York. I will never, ever forget 9/11. People I knew died that day. I'm telling you my personal position, but I understand them also. I do want them to have closure. I do want them to the degree that they can. I know that it will not bring back their loved one. That really concerns me and my heart breaks out in that regards. But it's hard. It will be hard for them for the rest of their lives because of the evil acts of those men. I think that they should be punished for it. To me, the best form of punishment is to make sure that they have hard labor for the rest of their life.

Yeah. A lot of them wanted, obviously, answers and accountability. Before this news broke tonight, the first thing we wanted to ask you about is what What's happening right now, the other move being made by the Pentagon, where they're repositioning US forces, major US assets, closer to the Middle East in anticipation of Iran's warning that they will conduct a direct strike on Israel. We don't know if that's going to happen. We don't know what it's going to look like, but clearly, they're bracing for it. What's the latest that you've heard about what we should be expecting?

Well, I'll talk about what I can talk about. I think that the administration has been good with me in giving me all the information that it can. But what I can talk about is we want to make sure. We We know that Iran and its proxies, Hisbala and the Hultis, don't mean Israel. They always say, Israel does not have the right to exist. We expect them to... They've taken them at their own word that they're going to attack Israel. We want to make sure that Israel has what it needs and is ready to protect itself. But also we know that Iran could very well look at some of the US assets. And so we've got to be ready to make sure. Are you worried about that? Oh, yes, I'm worried about that. I'm worried about the Middle East. Anything that What keeps me up at night as part of it is that the Middle East could explode and all of the innocent lives, innocent Israelis, innocent people from Lebanon, and innocent people dying. So I'm hoping, I know that the administration has individuals there, trying to talk to all sides, trying to cool it down.

It's also the reason why I do think that we need a ceasefire in Gaza, because I think that is indirectly connected. Also, if we can get a ceasefire in Gaza, that might help cool things down also. So because an all-out war will take us. It's very bad, and hopefully, that does not happen.

But with the killing of that top Hamas official Ismail Haneia, President Biden said he believes it doesn't help ceasefire talks. Do you see it that way, too? Look, it's clearly he was not a good guy.

He was designated a terrorist by the United States of America. That being said, he was the guy that was negotiating the ceasefire and was working with our ally and working with Qatar to try for us to get there. And so whether or not that causes a delay or prevents or ceasefire from happening is something that is concerning to me. So I understand President Biden because he's trying to put a lot of people together to get a deal done because the number one thing that I think that we have to do is get those that are being held hostage home. I met Net recently with a number of the families of those that are still being held hostage. They want to get those loved loved ones home. That is the priority that I think we should also have. Let's get those loved ones home. The only way that we can do that is with the ceasefire, and hopefully we can de-escalate what's taking place.

A lot of people are sitting at home tonight worried that escalation in the Middle East is inevitable. Do you see it that way?

No, I don't see it that way. It's getting close. I don't like what I'm seeing. I think that that's part of what Hamas wanted in the first place, because they thought that because of the Abraham Accords in Saudi Arabia talking about normalization with Israel, they didn't want that. They wanted to prevent it. I don't want them to win, and that's what they want to stop. I'm concerned about that. I don't think it's an inevitability. I think that we've got to work hard to try to make sure that the parties de-escalate. I think that that's what the Biden administration is doing with people in the region right now, which is extremely important.

Yeah. It's hard to think one year ago, everyone thought Israel was on the cusp of that normalization, and here we are now. Congressman Gregory Meeks, great to have you here tonight to respond to that breaking news. Thank you. Thank you for having.